The following U.S. Patents and Applications provide background information and are incorporated herein by reference in entirety.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,234,853 discloses a docking system which utilizes the marine propulsion unit of a marine vessel, under the control of an engine control unit that receives command signals from a joystick or push button device, to respond to a maneuver command from the marine operator. The docking system does not require additional propulsion devices other than those normally used to operate the marine vessel under normal conditions. The docking or maneuvering system of the present invention uses two marine propulsion units to respond to an operator's command signal and allows the operator to select forward or reverse commands in combination with clockwise or counterclockwise rotational commands either in combination with each other or alone.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,267,068 discloses a marine vessel maneuvered by independently rotating first and second marine propulsion devices about their respective steering axes in response to commands received from a manually operable control device, such as a joystick. The marine propulsion devices are aligned with their thrust vectors intersecting at a point on a centerline of the marine vessel and, when no rotational movement is commanded, at the center of gravity of the marine vessel. Internal combustion engines are provided to drive the marine propulsion devices. The steering axes of the two marine propulsion devices are generally vertical and parallel to each other. The two steering axes extend through a bottom surface of the hull of the marine vessel.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,305,928 discloses a vessel positioning system that maneuvers a marine vessel in such a way that the vessel maintains its global position and heading in accordance with a desired position and heading selected by the operator of the marine vessel. When used in conjunction with a joystick, the operator of the marine vessel can place the system in a station keeping enabled mode and the system then maintains the desired position obtained upon the initial change in the joystick from an active mode to an inactive mode. In this way, the operator can selectively maneuver the marine vessel manually and, when the joystick is released, the vessel will maintain the position in which it was at the instant the operator stopped maneuvering it with the joystick.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,467,595 discloses a method for controlling the movement of a marine vessel that rotates one of a pair of marine propulsion devices and controls the thrust magnitudes of two marine propulsion devices. A joystick is provided to allow the operator of the marine vessel to select port-starboard, forward-reverse, and rotational direction commands that are interpreted by a controller which then changes the angular position of at least one of a pair of marine propulsion devices relative to its steering axis.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,478,464 discloses systems and methods for orienting a marine vessel to enhance available thrust in a station keeping mode. A control device having a memory and a programmable circuit is programmed to control operation of a plurality of marine propulsion devices to maintain orientation of a marine vessel in a selected global position. The control device is programmed to calculate a direction of a resultant thrust vector associated with the plurality of marine propulsion devices that is necessary to maintain the vessel in the selected global position. The control device is programmed to control operation of the plurality of marine propulsion devices to change the actual heading of the marine vessel to align the actual heading with the thrust vector.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,807,059 discloses systems for maneuvering a marine vessel including an input device for requesting lateral movement of the marine vessel with respect to the longitudinal axis and a plurality of propulsion devices including at least a port propulsion device, a starboard propulsion device and an intermediate propulsion device disposed between the port and starboard propulsion devices. A control circuit controls orientation of the port and starboard propulsion devices inwardly towards a common point on the marine vessel, and upon a request for lateral movement of from the input device, operates one of the port and starboard propulsion devices in forward gear, operates the other of the port and starboard propulsion devices in reverse gear, and operates the intermediate propulsion device in reverse gear.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,039,468 discloses a system that controls speed of a marine vessel and includes first and second propulsion devices that produce first and second thrusts to propel the marine vessel. A control circuit controls orientation of the propulsion devices between an aligned position in which the thrusts are parallel and an unaligned position in which the thrusts are non-parallel. A first user input device is moveable between a neutral position and a non-neutral detent position. When the first user input device is in the detent position and the propulsion devices are in the aligned position, the thrusts propel the marine vessel in a desired direction at a first speed. When a second user input device is actuated while the first user input device is in the detent position, the propulsion devices move into the unaligned position and propel the marine vessel in the desired direction at a second, decreased speed without altering the thrusts.
Unpublished U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/246,681 discloses a method for controlling movement of a marine vessel near an object that includes accepting a signal representing a desired movement of the marine vessel from a joystick. A sensor senses a shortest distance between the object and the marine vessel and a direction of the object with respect to the marine vessel. A controller compares the desired movement of the marine vessel with the shortest distance and the direction. Based on the comparison, the controller selects whether to command the marine propulsion system to generate thrust to achieve the desired movement, or alternatively whether to command the marine propulsion system to generate thrust to achieve a modified movement that ensures the marine vessel maintains at least a predetermined range from the object. The marine propulsion system then generates thrust to achieve the desired movement or the modified movement, as commanded.